SAP cloud solutions to become available on India-based data center from mid-2024

SAP will make available multiple of its cloud solutions on a local India-based data center from mid-2024. The company made this announcement on Wednesday in light of regulatory requirements for data processing and storage which affects Indian businesses part of SAP clientele. Expanding the current portfolio of cloud solutions available in India, including SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Ariba will be hosted and offered to customers from within the sovereign borders of India, the company said in a statement.

“SAP already touches 60 per cent of India’s GDP and, by hosting our cloud solutions on an India-based data center, we will be even more uniquely positioned to help organisations across the country to transform their operations, and continue to innovate and grow in the cloud,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the executive board of SAP SE for SAP Product Engineering.

For local India-based data center SAP will partner with cloud service providers empanelled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to ensure in-country residency of business-critical and personal data.

"India is a strategic market for SAP, and as Indian organisations continue their Cloud transformation journeys, this development will provide a vital infrastructure foundation for businesses of all sizes enabling them to develop new customer experiences, utilise more cutting-edge technologies, and scale innovation using a wide range of SAP's cloud offerings,” said Kulmeet Bawa, president and managing director, SAP Indian Subcontinent. 

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act passed this year aims to establish a higher level of responsibility for companies operating in India. It lays down rules for the transfer of personal data across borders. In this backdrop, several companies are contemplating processing and storing data within the country. For instance, in an earlier interview with TechCircle, Atlassian chief said, “Whilst many companies are happy to have the data centre somewhere in the cloud, there are many other Indian government agencies and regulated industries that require us to have an Indian data centre. So we've made huge investments to be able to put our data in a data centre in India. We'll be utilising Amazon's data centers in India.”